Healing Was Never Easy
by Arsad
Summary: Three times Tony fixed something for Peter and one time Peter did it for Tony. Takes place directly in the aftermath of Endgame's war - AU where Tony lives.
1. I - Photograph

Hi guys!

I had the idea of writing this story while writing the chapter _Through Time_ in December, but as the plot differs from _Infinite Possible Ways to Meet You_'s proposal to show different ways Tony and Peter could've met each other, I decided to publish it as a separate short story of 4 chapters.

Thanks again for reading and Happy New Year! I hope you like it :)

* * *

_Three times Tony fixed something for Peter and one time Peter did it for Tony. Takes place directly in the aftermath of Endgame's war - AU where Tony lives._

* * *

**Healing Was Never Easy**

_I_

_Photograph_

~.~

Peter stayed motionless, lying on a small recovering room of the emergency healing facility that was built above the ashes and the wreckage of the destroyed Avengers Compound, staring at the ceiling with faraway the eyes as the doctors and nurses checked him up for any serious injuries as a result of the war.

He was completely numb; didn't feel them administering the drugs right into his vein, didn't hear the conversations taking place around him or noticed anything at all. The only thing he was aware of was that they had won.

They did it... Mr. Stark did it... and in his head he saw over and over again his mentor, always strong and indestructible, falling to his knees in the middle of the battlefield; his red and gold armor destroyed and burned, the body slowly slumping limply against a rock as his breath started to even out and his eyes, before so full of life and determination, glassed as Peter broke down while someone he couldn't even remember who dragged him away from the man.

He hadn't cried ever since; his unresponsive and silent demeanor worried the doctors who couldn't find anything wrong with the young superhero, no matter the countless exams they did on him.

Peter didn't cared anymore... his grief consumed him completely for hours, days, weeks... he didn't know how much time had passed. He stayed like that until one day the teenager become aware of his aunt's presence, she was standing in the doorway watching him with relieved, tearful eyes, her slight figure shrunken as if she had gone through hell and returned, and she really did, after living in her nephew's absence through the five years after the first snap.

May embraced him tightly, cradling his head against her chest gently, caressing his hair and face maternally.

"My baby! Oh my god, Peter! "

The young hero closed his eyes; the familiarity of her arms, her smell and her motherly voice, grounding him and giving him a sense of security, made something asleep deep inside him wake up, and as Peter felt his body succumb back to reality, he sank in his aunt's embrace and his eyes swelled with tears. He gasped; the air short in his lungs.

"H-He died… May… He's… Mr. Stark… he's…" The teenager took a deep, shaky breath as his aunt parted from him partially; watching him with kind yet surprised eyes.

"They... They didn't tell you?"

Peter watched her in confusion and she threw a questioning glance at the nurse who stood closer inside the same room.

"The doctors thought it best to wait to give him the news." The young girl immediately informed. "He was unresponsive until now and they were afraid of what his reaction would be if given this kind of information in his current state of shock."

"May…?" Peter asked in a small voice and his aunt looked back at him gently.

"Peter... He's alive, sweetheart ... Tony is alive."

~.~

He went to see him as soon as the doctors finally let him out of his room.

Thought the camp was improvised, the technologies available to the staff were state-of-the-art and it has been doing wonders in helping the patients who still needed it for recovery. Peter walked through the corridors of the small building, following the directions previously given to him as he dodged a few passersby and observed the movement of doctors and nurses coming and going inside the rooms, tending to people.

It was late at night and the movement was low, he found no difficulty to pursue his goal nor did he find any familiar face on the way; soon he reached the part of the building where his mentor rested.

The young hero stood staring at the door for a long time, afraid of what he would see inside or rambling on the irrational thoughts that treacherously ran through his head, saying that everything was a terrible joke and that the man wouldn't be there. The stupid thoughts running wildly in his mind give away as the door suddenly opened and two people left the room.

Pepper was the first to notice him; the woman was modestly dressed in a long white dress that fell comfortable loose in her silhouette, her long auburn hair was tied in a high ponytail, and although her face showed evident weariness, the bangs under her eyes revealed sleepless nights in worry, her sky blue irises glowed when she recognized the teenager.

"Peter..." She whispered kindly in acknowledgment and the young hero stayed still, unsure of what to do or say.

Although he has met with Stark Industries CEO on the Tower several times when he and Tony were working on the suits in the billionaire's private lab, they weren't exactly close as he and his mentor had been. Pepper always had greeted him when they met occasionally, their small talks had been pleasant and he found in her only kindness and the wisdom of a truly bright woman; the three of them had dined a couple of times and he had had a great time but it was just that.

"Huh... hi Mrs. Potts." Peter replied shyly and a small smile spread across the woman's tired face.

"Actually, it's Stark now." She corrected him gently and the teenager widened his eyes in surprise.

"Are you already married?!" He blurted out; his own words sank in and he immediately blushed hard in embarrassment. Kicking himself mentally, he reminded Dr. Strange's words explaining that five years had passed.

It still seemed so surreal.

Pepper laughed softly, it was the first time she'd done it in so many days. Far from being offended, she nodded her head in affirmation and the teenager's slip seemed to bring her back some light to her countenance. Pepper opened her lips to speak, but the small tug on her dress interrupted her.

"Mum?" The little girl called, partly hidden behind the woman's dress and Peter stared down at her in amazement; only then truly paying attention to her.

The gears running through his head could be read in his face, and even as he assimilated the new information, the surprise in his voice wasn't hidden.

"Your daughter...?"

Pepper nodded, and caressing the girl's long dark locks, she introduced them.

"This is Morgan." And bending slightly, the woman spoke to her daughter. "And this is Peter, he's very close to our family; darling, you remember the stories daddy told you about Pete, don't you?"

The shyness she had shown suddenly disappeared as a glow of admiration invaded the girl's brown eyes, so full of energy just like her father's, and Peter swallowed the limp in his throat. Coming out of her hiding place, Morgan asked excitedly.

"Spiderman?" A huge smile broke on the younger Stark's face. "Daddy told me that you could climb a really tall building with your hands and that you could jump as far as an entire football field!"

"Yeah, I think it is me." The teenager chuckled lightly; he doubt he could jump the distance of an entire field and probably his mentor had over dramatized the story, but Morgan's big grin and shining, familiar warm eyes melted his heart and Peter found himself already captivated by the girl.

"You are here to see him." Pepper spoke softly then and the young hero nodded, thought it hadn't been a question. The woman frowned in sympathy and inquired. "Did they tell you…?"

"Yes," Peter confirmed; the doctors had explained to him his mentor's general condition and he tried to conceal the involuntary grimace he did from the remembrance.

Mrs. Stark still watched him with that same kindness in her sky azure eyes.

"Go on..." She encouraged. "I'm sure he would really appreciate it."

Peter thanked her with a shake of his head, but remained silent; before leaving with her daughter, Pepper surprised him when she took his body in her arms in a motherly embrace.

"I'm glad you're alright, Peter." She told him sincerely and the teenager returned the hug shyly.

The young hero watched mother and daughter leave until they both disappeared around the bend of the corridor, then turned his attention back the door. With a small sigh he grabbed the handle and opened it, entering the new place and closing the door behind him.

His eyes immediately fell on the figure lying in the center of the room's only bed, surrounded by equipment that monitored his current condition and helped the man stay alive in those early days after the battle, and Peter couldn't held back the shocked gasp that escaped his Lips.

The doctors had tried to warn him, but everything they had said seemed like a poor description of what he saw now.

Tony... looked broken; so broken that Peter almost didn't recognize him.

His mentor was lying on the bed covered by thin sheets to the waist, while the upper part of his body was completely covered by heavy bandages that in several places showed the reddish marks of blood still pouring from deep open wounds. He was very thin and extremely pale, his face sunken so much so that his left cheekbone was too apparent; the entire right side of his face was covered by bandages while the left side was covered by cuts and dark bruises and his only visible eye was closed in deep slumber.

_"We had to force him into an induced comatose state to better manage his body's recovery; it needs to spend as little effort as possible, the damages were too severe… " _The doctor's words came back to him.

An oxygen tube in his mouth made his chest rise and fall steadily, although his breathing was almost non-perceptive and small. The beating of his heart displaying on the monitoring device was so weak that the man seemed to be literally hanging on a very thin and fragile line where even the most subtle disturbance could threaten to impair his worrying condition.

Peter shuddered and tried unsuccessfully to not stare at the bandaged hole on his mentor's right side where his arm was missing alongside a major part of his shoulder.

_"...When he snapped the strength of the stones was so great that even with the protection of the infinity gauntlet and his armor absorbing some of the impact, it still passed right through it and melted his hand and arm on the spot; the forearm and shoulder structure were so badly damaged that there was no choice but to amputate them to allow him any chance of recovery. It also burned the right side of his face; only god knows how by miracle it was a superficial burn and apparently didn't penetrate the skull and reached the brain…"_

Peter approached the bed with numb steps; he stood beside the engineer, eyes watching him as if he still couldn't believe that this man was really Anthony Stark, the great Iron Man, his friend, mentor and father figure. He was Earth's Greatest Defender and his sacrifice had absorbed all of his essence, leaving behind only an almost empty shell, a shadow of the strong and brilliant man Tony had been.

It wasn't fair, the teenager thought, that the world celebrated while the one who had saved them all was there, lying in that bed alone, broken and forgotten, still struggling to hold on to the last bit still remaining of his lifeline.

_"I'm sorry, Mr. Parker… There could be several more kinds of still unknown damages… specially to his brain, but we'll only know after his body recovers enough to pull him out of the induced coma for him to wake up… if he wakes up at all... Unfortunately, there's no guarantee that he will ever wake up again. "_

Peter grasped the man's left hand in his, cradling gently his mentor's fingers as a sob broke out of his lips and tears slid down his face again in grief, just like that day when the man had looked back at him for the last time.

Tony continued oblivious to all his surroundings and his protégé's presence, breathing weakly as the monitoring device echoed loud in the room.

~.~

Two months have passed since that day; Peter visited him whenever he could. Between the normalcy that had been established back in his life, or as close as he could possibly consider it, the teenager divided his time between studies at Midtown High and patrolling through the city during the afternoons and early evenings.

For the first one he wasn't surprised to discover that almost his entire school had been ripped out of existence after Thanos' snap, and now that everyone returned the staff had been running wildly to better attend the studying curriculum of their students victims of the disappearances.

He had been so glad to meet Ned and Michelle again and find them well. His friend had been talking nonstop about the changes he found in technology that occurred in those five years and even the young woman was less teasing and smiling more. Even Flash was being less jerk than usual, which showed a good prospect for his last months at Midtown High.

Peter chose to enter an advanced program to catch up and finish his studies faster to be able to start applying for colleges, hoping to enter one in the next year. It helped him spend much of his mental energy concentrating on something and not thinking about all that had happened.

As for the second, it wasn't easy to convince May to let him patrol again like he used to do before; it took him several days of talking and insisting until she finally gave in to his request on the condition that he let Karen connected all the time to her cellphone, reporting to her his wellbeing any she was wished, which he immediately agreed to.

Peter didn't blame her; she was afraid of losing him again and all night after he arrived at their temporary flat set up in the staff living facility, as May was working there assisting the injured, they would spend a great deal of time together talking about the day or watching movies like they used to do.

So, temporarily living closer to his mentor's resting room made the teenager visit him constantly. Sometimes he found another avenger on the way, sometimes he visited Tony with May or shared those small moments with Pepper and Morgan; the CEO of SI becoming more constant in his life as he unconditionally fell in love with her daughter, unexpectedly becoming attached to the small girl as she often asked him to tell her Spiderman stories.

It took two months of constant monitoring for Tony's condition to stabilize enough for the doctors to remove the induced coma and another five days for the man to open his eyes for the first time after the battle.

It happened in one their visits; only the three of them were in the room, chatting quietly when the monitoring devices showed a slight change, and alarmed, at once the teenager, the woman and the girl looked at the engineer, finding his only visible eye opened, watching them back with a unfocused, blank stare.

Tony was so heavy on drugs and strong pain medicines that he didn't recognize them.

~.~

_"I've heard he did it because of a kid who was an intern at SI and was snapped."_ The teenager heard with his enhanced hearing the whispers that roamed the halls that night as he slowly returned alone to his room. _"One of the avengers told me he initially refused to try the whole time travel thing, but reconsidered because of this kid… "_

_"Who is he?"_

_"I have no idea..."_

Peter's body collided with the wall for support and he stood there for a long time trying to contain the trembling that overwhelmed him, trying to fully grasp what he had just heard while in his mind he saw Tony again, lying inert in his hospital bed, beaten and broken.

Who confirmed it to him was Scott Lang; the man excitedly told him the next morning of all the details of their heroic stunt, not noticing the sickness that overcome the teenager's face in the middle of his tale as his stomach made such a sudden and violent turn that Peter almost threw up on the spot.

He didn't visit Tony anymore after that.

~.~

Falling over the rooftop the staff's living facility, the masked hero sat on the edge of the building and sighed, watching the sky's orange, gold and red colors on the horizon as the sun faded fast, crossing the borders of their world.

These were the times when Peter missed school; after he finished his studies he still talked to his friends a lot, but now he had too much free time on his hands and it made him think about his life and all around him more than he would have liked to.

The amount of hours he used to patrol increased and that helped him to get his mind off things, but sometimes in his days he found himself trapped in small, very quiet moments where nothing happened; nothing that needed Spider-Man's hand, actually, and Peter always started thinking as a cloud of depression fell upon him once again.

"Peter." Karen's voice mercifully interrupted his distant musings.

"Hey..." The teenager answered.

It was a wonder how she could be so understanding for an AI; Tony programmed her so well that Karen had been really helpful when he began talking to her about the sad thoughts that plagued his mind.

"Got something interesting for me, girl?"

"Your aunt is asking if you could return to the flat right now."

Peter frowned; it was so unusual for May call him back at such an early hour. He checked the time displayed on the visor of his mask and inquired concerned.

"Is everything okay?"

The A.I took a few seconds to reply; she did as soon as she got his aunt's answer.

"Yes; she just informed me that she needs to talk to you."

"Alright..." The young man sighed and forced himself up, dragging his body back on its feet.

The hero climbed the building's side wall, dropped himself on the ground in a dark hidden alley and tapped the spider symbol on his chest; his iron suit immediately retracted itself into the shape of a sphere and he tucked it into his pants pocket before stepping into the light, mingling into the crowd on streets of the camp.

Peter walked into the flat a few minutes later and the first thing he saw was his aunt sitting in the little makeshift kitchen with Pepper Stark sitting directly in front of her across the table, and Morgan playing with a puzzle on the couch. Both women looked at him and the five-year old girl immediately jumped from her seat and rushed to meet him.

"Pete!" She embraced his legs and the young hero bend down slightly to pat her head fondly.

"Hey, Morgs." He raised his face and nodded at Pepper in acknowledgment.

"Hello, Peter." The woman smiled at him.

May stood, approached her nephew and kissed his cheek.

"Thank you for coming back, sweetheart." Peter gave her a questioning glance and May explained to him. "Pepper is here to see you; I think you both should talk, it's important to you."

Whatever it was his aunt seemed to already know all about it; she invited Morgan to join her for a small walk outside and soon Peter and his mentor's wife found themselves alone in the small and humble room.

Pepper stood from the chair to swap it for the couch and mentioned for Peter to come and share it, taking the vacant seat beside her. He accepted after a brief moment.

"You didn't come to visit Tony anymore; it's been two weeks." She spoke going straight to the point; she wasn't accusing, just commenting softly as she watched him, her attention never leaving his face.

Peter broke the eye contact and shifted uncomfortable on his seat.

"I… I didn't… want to disturb him… He needs all the rest he can get." The teenager mumbled, fumbling with his own fingers on his lap.

"He's recovering... each day is a new fight he faces, but slowly he's succeeding, he's getting better." She told him. "Tony's managing to stay more time awake and he's already reacting to people around him. He's not quite able to speak yet full sentences, but he's already talking a small few words with me and Morgan. "

Pepper was silent for a brief moment, sighing softly.

"He's been asking for you, Peter."

That made the teenager raise his face; an avalanche of emotions filled his eyes and she read them clearly as in an open book.

"I know what you are thinking." The woman spoke so gentle, her eyes had only understanding and seemed to see his very soul; she held both his hands firmly in hers. "Peter, it wasn't your fault."

His eyes widened, staring back at the woman, shocked.

"How…" He whispered.

"FRIDAY told me." Pepper answered him.

The young hero was confused for five seconds and then it finally downed on him; FRIDAY still had a direct connection to Karen and he considered his AI a close friend so much that he had practically dumped her everything he was feeling about Tony, his current condition, his self-blame in indirectly being responsible for making the man consider creating the time travel at first place, and worst of all, for not having fought harder to prevent what his mentor had done.

He had held the Infinity Gauntlet in his arms ... he could have ... done anything ... he could have been faster ... fought harder ... anything...

Peter felt his entire face burn red in embarrassment; the woman touched his cheek, her light and comforting touch.

"My husband saved many lives with everything he did, from the moment he first wore his iron armor until now. He never regretted anything before and I'm sure that he hasn't regretted anything now as well; the choices he made were his alone, Peter. I would be lying if I told you that you had no special weight in the inspiration that made him decide to go deeper into the research that led him to discover the elements that would make time travel possible; in the five years we lived together after you disappeared, during our marriage, Morgan's birth and her childhood, you've always been in his thoughts. "

The auburn-haired woman sighed and smiled with a slight distant touch in her gaze that stared somewhere beyond the teenager as if reliving the memories she spoke. Peter was so engrossed in her words that he didn't dare to say anything and interrupt her.

"Tony spoke of you as I have rarely heard him speak of anyone before. He told me that the time you spent together helped him to understand more about his relationship with Morgan, unconsciously preparing him for the fatherhood role he soon assumed when we were blessed with our daughter. "

She looked straight into his eyes again.

"Morgan grew up listening stories about you; sometimes her father told her about the amazing achievements that Spiderman did to help people, others he invented like the time he told her Spiderman had helped Iron Man defeat a group of aliens who invaded Earth once." Pepper snorted softly, fondly. "But... sometimes Tony told her stories about Peter, a brilliant young scientist who had been her older brother."

The teenager's mouth dropped in shock and Pepper smiled at him that same motherly smile and he saw her give several times to Morgan.

"Because in truth this is what you have always been to him, Peter. Tony didn't go back just to save the world; he also did it to save a son he loved."

Peter stayed frozen on the spot, completely at loss of words; the auburn-haired woman caressed his hands, warming them. He swallowed hard, shaken.

"H-He… he…" The young hero couldn't get the words out, but Pepper understood them nevertheless.

"It was something he wanted you to know back then; Tony blamed himself so much for not openly telling you this while he could, before it all happened." She watched him. "I decided to tell you this now so that you could understand why my husband did what he did and why you shouldn't blame yourself for the things that have passed Peter. There's nothing we wouldn't do for our daughter ... just as there's nothing we wouldn't do for our son. "

Like the night they'd first met after the war outside the engineer's room, Pepper embraced him again, kissing his cheek and softly telling him.

"Go to him, Peter. I'm sure seeing you will brighten his heart. "

~.~

Later that night, when the moon boasted high in the sky and the movement in the corridors of the Healing Facility had diminished considerably, Peter stood again in front of his mentor's door, staring at the handle with Pepper's words still running wild through his head, and it took him a long moment until he finally opened it and entered the room.

The light was pleasantly low, covering the room in semidarkness; Tony was resting in what looked like a calm slumber, the only visible side of his face was relaxed, his skin rosier and his breathing deeper and steady. His face's right side was covered by new bandages of the recent surgery the man had done to repair the damage he had taken. The best plastic surgeons in the world had worked on it and Peter really hoped they had managed it.

Not wishing to disturb his mentor's rest, Peter focused his attention on the room and realized that there were some slights changes on it; Pepper's hand, no doubt. A flower vase rested in the far corner and close to the bed stood now a small with three photos above it.

The teenager approached to observe them; the first one showed the billionaire holding his daughter in his arms with Pepper standing close by his side, the three of them were smiling at the camera. The second showed the engineer next to Happy and Rhodey. The third, however, captured his attention and made him take the portrait in his hands and stare at it for a long time; it was the photo they had taken together at Stark Industries for his internship, both grinning madly at the camera.

It... It seemed like a long time ago, so far away... it was a time when both were working hours straight in the lab, fixing his suit or seeing other projects they shared common interest. Tony had just announced his engagement with Pepper and had made his internship official in his company. Everything seemed to be fine and then Thanos happened.

The shadow of sadness crossed his eyes; if only they had known... could they have avoided it? Preventing the snap and the sacrifices Tony and the other Avengers had made to win?

He truly didn't know...

"Pete..."

The teenager jumped, so startled that the frame slipped from his paralyzed fingers and fell to the floor, shattering the glass that protected the photograph. It lied forgotten as the young hero tuned his head fast, eyes meting his mentor's, watching him back.

Tony's left brown eye shone with the reminiscence of the intense gaze he had always had before; although still weakened, it wasn't blank or unfocused, but clear and attentive with recognition.

"Hey, Mr. Stark ..." Peter greeted him weakly; he tried to grin but it didn't set right on his lips, resembling more a grimace than poor attempt at a smile.

Tony stayed silent; the emotion that outlined his countenance was the same Peter saw in the man's face when they've met at the battle field; for him had been only a matter of minutes, for his mentor it had been five years.

"S-So..sor..y… sorry…" Tony's voice took him out of his reverie; it was slightly slurred by the medicines. "I ... d-didn't ... last time ... sorry ..."

Peter's eyes widened; suddenly understanding he shook his head furiously.

"It wasn't your fault, Mr. Stark! I'm totally okay with it! If I had been so drugged like you I doubt I'd recognize even myself! "

Man's lips quirked up slightly.

"You'ky?" Tony asked in a breath and Peter threw him an incredulous look.

Here they are; his mentor after saving the entire freaking planet and getting beaten the crap out of him, asking if _he _was alright? The engineer's visible eye shined with small amusement and Peter could have sworn he heard a snort escape the man's lips.

"I'm okay!" The young hero blurted out.

Fumbling with words that seemed to come to his head in total disarray, he didn't know exactly what to say to the man now that he was finally there, talking to him; he began to say anything that crossed his mind so as to not let the room's silence engulf them again.

"I'm surviving aunt May's bad cooking; don't tell her that, thought! Not that I ate it much, usually we do it at night after school or after I patrolled as Spiderman… I just patrol now, I finished school about a week ago, I started applying to colleges; hope one of them accepts me… May is staying around here helping people out; I've been patrolling more now, she didn't want me to patrol at first, but I convinced her by letting Karen being in touch constantly… I didn't do much this week, thought, I stayed close to the camp and yesterday I saved this cat from a tree for a small girl, she gave me a shaped kitten balloon that I give to Morgan…"

Peter suddenly fell silent when he perceived himself rambling too far and his cheeks flushed pink in embarrassment, Tony, however, watched him serenely showing such attention and interest as if the cat the teenager had saved was so important to him as much the tale of Iron Man recent deeds was to humanity. The billionaire gaze was gentle and deep and Peter was so suddenly moved by it that he turned his face away to watch anything else in the room, and his attention fell on the broken frame under his feet.

"Give it... to me..." The man's voice slurred once again at the request and Peter saw the effort he made to raise his hand; the teenager picked up the object and carefully handed it to his mentor.

Tony rested the broken frame on his lap and silently, with very slow movements, fingers that were too stiff to Peter's eyes, he opened the frame and took their picture from it. The teenager grasped the broken pieces of glass and discarded them in a safe place while Tony watched the photo with fondness in his countenance. Suddenly he took off a piece of white tape that held one of his bandages and pressed it on the top of the photo.

"Put it on… the wall." He instructed and wordless the young hero obeyed and glued their picture on the wall above the nightstand, next to the picture of the couple with their daughter.

"See..." The man give him a tired grin. "Fixed it… good… as new…"

Peter's eyes filled with tears and Tony's softened, his left hand subtly patted the small space beside him on the bed.

"Come're ... kid..." The engineer beckoned him.

Peter didn't hesitate to sit in bed on the man's good and lie down on his mentor's chest, hugging him careful of his injuries and Tony's left arm embraced him gently, cradling the teenager's trembling form against him, fingers strolling through his unruly brown curls; his body protested partly, but the man didn't complain aloud as Peter's tears wet his bandages and he savored every second his kid's presence; Peter was here, he was real, he was safe and now his family was whole again.

"Its'kay… Pete…" Tony muttered slurred, feeling his left eye also wet with tears. "Its'kay… now…"


	2. II - Hologram

Hi guys! Thanks a lot for your support! :)

As a curiosity, the object mentioned at the end of this chapter comes from an extra post-credits scene from the film Captain America: Civil War. If you haven't seen it yet, you can easily find it on youtube by searching for 'Captain America: Civil War - End Credit scene [4k 60fps]'.

Hope you like it!

* * *

**Healing Was Never Easy**

_II_

_Hologram_

~.~

The bandages on Tony's face came off after four days; the work the plastic surgeons had done returned to the man his entire right side, which apart from three slight scars that were visible on the side of his cheek, two disappearing behind his ear and one went up into his hair, the engineer began to resemble once more his good old self.

As his body recovered, the smaller injuries healed completely while the more serious ones settled on scars, the amount of strong medicines the billionaire took decreased; his breathing became strong and steady and it allowed Tony to fully regain his voice and his ability to speak normally.

And as soon as he got it back, the engineer bothered the doctors and the staff at the Healing Facility so much that he won his discharge and freedom for sheer stubbornness, with the agreement of May Parker staying in the Stark Residence at least for the first month to assist him in medical care and Dr. Cho's regular visits to make sure everything is going as expected.

That's how Peter saw his temporary living place change from the flat at the camp to the lake house, as his aunt went ahead early in the morning taking their things and the monitoring devices she might need and the teenager drove away with the Stark family in the early afternoon.

Happy drove them in an Audi on the roads that were relatively empty as Peter was sitting on the passenger seat beside him, both sporadically looking in the rearview mirror to watch the couple and their daughter in the back seat_._

For the first time in a long time Tony's face was truly relaxed; he was leaning against the seat with his eyes closed and Morgan curled up on his left side, his arm around her shoulders, while his wife sat on his right side, answering emails on a Starkpad.

Peter watched them; his mentor still tired very easily, his movements were too slow and sometimes it seemed also painful, although the man tried often to not let it show. He had explicit orders for absolute rest, but the way he knew Tony was stubborn he doubted that the man would be 100% quiet during his recovery.

The corner of his lips curled discreetly upwards; May was going to have a lot of work to do.

He always tried not to stare at his mentor's missing arm, but every time his head ran too much ahead of him he would caught himself looking at it, thinking again at the price Tony had paid to save everyone's life.

_ …He also did it to save a son he loved._

Peter diverted his head when he remembered those words and his heart leapt as he silently battled to quiet it down. He didn't had the courage to talk to the man about it, not while he was going through the worst part of his life and the teenager himself was still trying to assimilate the words the auburn-haired woman had told him; that Tony considered him as a son.

A warm feeling spread in his chest as he glued his eyes on the road ahead to watch the trees passing by; Happy at his side sometimes gave him weird looks with every new grimace that Peter unconsciously did while thinking.

"You're going to keep the bandages for Daddy, aren't you, honey?" Tony's voice sounded behind them speaking to his daughter. "Don't let aunt May put it in the trash can; I will use it for my mummy costume on our next Halloween."

It got the desired effect and the girl giggled aloud; she laid her head on her father's lap and stared up at him adorably.

"Can I go with mum's suit, daddy?" It was an innocent childish question, but that made Pepper stop completely what she was doing to glance up from the Starkpad.

"Don't you think you a little too short to wear it?" The billionaire raised an eyebrow, amused.

"No!" Morgan gave him a full toothy grin.

"None of you will to get close to a suit while I'm in charge of the house. You for a very long time..." Pepper gestured to her husband and then to her daughter. "... and you in your whole life. No labs all night, no dismantling things in the house and definitely no suits. Heard me FRIDAY?"

"Of course, Pepper; no suits." AI's response came from the Starkpad and Peter saw his mentor pout to his five-year old girl through the mirror.

"Looks like your mum screwed all our fun, squirt." He made a sad face and Morgan cracked in a new fit of giggles. The man glanced at the device in his wife's hands and muttered. "Traitor."

"I am deeply committed to your wellbeing, Boss." The AI responded with a suspiciously innocent tone and the engineer snorted.

"I'm sure you are." Tony replied, his eyes met Pepper's deep gaze and they observed each other in a silent conversation.

It had been their mutual agreement, the teenager knew. His mentor had officially announced his permanent retirement while in hospital and no one could blame him; he barely escaped alive from it all… Although he would still help the Avengers from afar through other means, he would never wear his iron suit again.

At that moment Tony's gaze met his protégé's through the mirror and Peter blushed and quickly turned his face away to stare at the road again.

"Kid." The engineer called him. "You are quieter than usual; what's on your head?"

_Do you seriously think of me as a son? _Peter didn't have the courage to voice the question aloud in front of the four sets of eyes watching him and waiting for his answer, especially his mentor's.

"Huh..." The teenager searched in his head for anything relevant that would be convincing enough and didn't sound stupid. "Can we do fishing at the lake house?"

"Fishing?" Tony asked. "I didn't know you liked fishing."

"I used to with my uncle; I haven't done it in a long time."

It was true; he wasn't so addicted to it, but Ben had taken him a couple of times in the past and most of the time they had come back empty-handed. It was more about talking and enjoying each other's company than actually being able to catch a fish.

Tony's _'Fishing is nice, of course we could do it sometime.' _was overlaid by Morgan's way too sincere_ 'Daddy hates fishing'._

And before the man could say anything, his lovely daughter finished to shoot him down.

"Daddy hates it since he was beaten up by a fish."

Pepper started to laugh and even Happy snorted in the front seat. The teenager turned around fully to watch his mentor's face with barely concealed mirth in his eyes.

"You got the crap beaten out of you by a fish, Mr. Stark?" Peter cracked and the man spoke defensively.

"It was a big fish! And I _did_ catch it!"

"You were dragged into the lake and had to use your repulsor to get out with it. You came home all wet from head to toe; I think it was the fish that caught you first." His wife revealed all the details and the engineer glared at her.

"At least we ate fried fish, didn't we? Job's done." Tony mumbled and Morgan leaned conspiratorially to whisper not so low to the teenager.

"Daddy got so mad that he fried it with his repulsor."

Peter's lips parted with a grin and he looked back at his mentor with amusement.

"Could I try to do that? Sounds fun!"

Tony watched him fondly.

"We can't put the house upside down; Mum's orders." He pinched lightly his daughter's ear ad she giggled.

"Please!" Pepper emphasized and Peter smiled watching the family.

~.~

After that Tony slept for the rest of the trip; his still fragile state made any effort spent, like a simple conversation, wear him out and often against his will the engineer ended up surrendering himself to restful sleep. He didn't notice the scenery changing from the stone city to the rural area where the road led them to astonishing sceneries amid the trees, which captured completely Peter's attention as it was the first time he travelled through it.

The engineer also failed to notice the two hours that passed by, the quietly conversation that occurred around him occasionally or Morgan's playing with the fingers of his left hand the entire way; Tony just woke after Happy parked the Audi beside the lake house, listening to his daughter chatting non-stop with May who was waiting for them.

While the woman divided her attention between the girl and her nephew, hugging each one of them, Tony was helped by his friend and his wife to carefully exit the car.

"Good afternoon, Tony." May smiled at him. "You aren't going to give me trouble, right? You promised to behave back in the hospital."

"Anything to get out of there." He flashed her a grin.

"Don't worry, May, he's going to be a good patient, isn't it, my dear?" Pepper gave him the look that dared him to disagree and face the consequences; May laughed at the dull expression on the man's countenance.

"Come on, Pete!" Morgan started to excitedly pull the young hero's arm towards the house. "Let's see your room!"

"H-Hey!" Peter laughed at the girl's animation; he looked at the adults and saw Tony nod his head for him to go.

"Go ahead," The billionaire said.

"I hope you like it," Pepper added, smiling.

As he followed Morgan inside, Peter took in the new scenery that surrounded him; it was a totally different from the Tower's Penthouse his mentor used to live before the war. The Stark Residence had a rustic welcoming air that promised calm and peace, surrounded by a pine forest and far from everything with the lake to grace their view. The interior was comfortable, simple, domestic; it didn't have the great luxuries that usually stand out to the eye in the Penthouse, but it had a nice familiar feeling and touch that Peter found he liked more, as if in those five years his mentor had really chosen to take a break from everything in his old life to dedicate himself only to his family.

When Peter started to think about how hard those years must have been for the Stark family and his aunt, Morgan brought him back to the present when she pulled his arm again, leading them into a hallway and into a room.

The teenager didn't hold back the surprise on his face, the place had everything a young man like him could wish for; it was decorated in a mixture of Spiderman and Star Wars theme with a huge television hanging on the wall, painted in blue and silver, posters scattered of stuff he liked. In the center was a large single bed and on the other side there was a desk with a notebook resting on top of it, next to a replica of a Star Destroyer stored inside a glass shelf that he knew Ned would die if he saw it. The closet almost as big as the room itself could be accessed through a secondary door next to a bookcase full of books and DVDs and in the far wall a window gave a privileged view of the lake and the forest.

"Daddy chose the theme, Mum bought the furniture and I helped her decorate it. Did you like it?"

The five-year old girl tilted her head to the side in expectation in an adorable way and Peter could only stare at her in awe.

"This... this is awesome!" He said, truly moved.

Even though his stay at Stark Residence had initially been declared as temporary, that room and everything inside it didn't make him feel like it was temporary at all.

~.~

Peter noticed it for the first time by accident that same night, hidden behind his mentor's relaxed countenance and mild gaze.

When Morgan insisted on showing him their garage, Tony took them to a room that actually was a small, state-of-the-art laboratory set up next to the Stark Residence. As the girl happily walked in front of them with a suspicious familiarity of someone who had been there several times before, Peter saw when her father stopped in front of the glass capsule that had the remnants of his iron suit, the one he used in the battle against Thanos.

The red and gold metal still shone brightly reflecting the artificial light from the room; with several parts smashed or broken, filthy with dirt and blood, it's entire right arm and shoulder was missing in a mirror image of the man standing in front of it, watching the iron mask with a gravity in his gaze as the faceplate stared back at him with empty eyes.

It was a distant and expressionless look, filled with a shadow; it could be mistaken for a kind of melancholy or depression, but Peter knew it was so much more than that because he himself had had a similar look on his own face in his early days of recovery at the Healing Facility; the look of someone who has gone to war and returned from it with something missing.

For Peter he had thought he had lost his friend, mentor and father figure; as for the billionaire...

Morgan stopped beside her father, oblivious to his darken thoughts and she excitedly took his hand to show him something she found interesting; Tony looked down at his daughter with a warm smile on his lips, his eyes shone once again and held a mild gaze.

~.~

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Tony asked the teenager in the next morning, as the group walked slowly by the lake, providing a comfortable pace for the recovering man.

Peter threw him an amused glance.

"Of course I do! Besides, you were the one who invited me to fishing in first place, remember?"

The teenager's cheerful tone made the man roll his eyes; Peter winked and whispered so that Pepper, Morgan and May walking a little ahead of them wouldn't hear it.

"Don't worry, Mr. Stark! I know how to bait the hook and the right way to cast it into the water; I can cover your back for you! I've got it all sorted out and we're going to catch a big one!"

"Lucky me." The billionaire snorted. "If it goes wrong know that I'm going to blame it all on you, kid."

"It won't." Peter grinned.

They arrived at a pleasant spot under the shade of a leafy tree; it had with a wide canopy of long branches that stretched for several meters around itself, some were so large that they hovered over the lake shore. The water was calm that morning, making small waves that constantly touching the grass. A pleasant breeze came to greet them while the teenager, his aunt and Pepper prepared the chairs and the five-year-old girl spread a towel on the floor to sit on top of it.

His wife helped him into one of the seats and Tony kissed her lips before she moved away.

"May and I are going to walk around for a while; promise you will behave and keep an eye on the kids?" Pepper asked with a smile and the engineer winked.

"I won't move my ass from this chair; the hard work is all on Peter and Morgan. "

The woman's blue eyes strayed from her husband to look at the teenager at their daughter; Peter was showing the girl how to prepare the hook while May handed him the bait pot and commented something about Ben Parker; the couple watched their small family with a content gaze.

~.~

May's laughter echoed first on the table and Tony's joined it with Morgan's; Pepper chuckled lightly from behind her napkin as Peter's entire face turned an angry shade of red.

"Come on, aunt May! Why did you have to tell them that?! "

"Because your lovely face is so pretty when gets this red, it is adorable!" May laughed even more when her nephew glared at her fiercely; their fried fish forgotten as a new wave of laughter spread.

"I'll prank you when you're asleep." The teenager murmured darkly, burning a hole on his plate as he refused to meet his mentor's eyes; he could _feel_ the man's gaze on him and knew that Tony wouldn't let him live it down for the rest of his life.

Not when his dear aunt just told him that as a child he used to run around their house wearing his toy mask and repulsors screaming non-stop 'I AM IRON MAN' to Iron Man himself.

"You don't happen to have a recording of this with you, do you?" Tony asked the woman, very interested.

Peter's cry of 'No!' came out at the same time May answered 'Of course I do!'

As the new wave of laughter spread across the table, the engineer took his glass of juice and lifting it to his mouth, it suddenly escaped his grip, slipped through his immobile fingers and the liquid wetted the table and his clothes. Tony stared down at it deeply surprised, stunned while the others stood to help him; Peter picked up the fallen glass while May took the man's plate of food away and Morgan wiped the table with a napkin. Pepper brought a fabric and helped her husband dry himself.

Tony shook his head and shrugged; disconcerted, laughed lightly with amusement, but not before Pepper and Peter noticed the shadow that quickly passed through the man's eyes.

~.~

There were times when his powers helped him a lot and facilitated even the most mundane tasks of his day life, but there were times when Peter absolutely hated them, as he did that very moment.

As soon as their lunch was over and the Stark couple withdrew first from the table while he and Morgan helped May with the dishes, Peter wanted to pluck off his own ears, cursing his sensitive hearing as he listened against his will the conversation that wasn't meant for him to hear.

_"This... this can't be happening to me ..."_

_"Tony, calm down."_

_"Calm down? Calm down?! How do you want me to calm down, Pepper ?! My hand ... my fingers locked, they don't obey me! "_

_"You are still recovering ..."_

_"It was just a glass! If I can't hold a stupid glass, how am I going to be able to hold a hammer or a screwdriver, Pep? No ... this can't be fucking happening to me!"_

_"Did you try to use your hand for something else after you left the hospital? Did you force the muscle with something, Tony? "_

_"No! I was resting as I was told to do! This will make me useless…"_

_"Tony, it's not the end of the world, you need to calm down."_

_"This is everything for me, Pep! It's all that I know to do and I've done my whole life... I don't mind having just one arm now, I could work with a single hand just fine, but like this... this is useless! I won't be able to continue my projects in the lab."_

_"I'm will ask May to take a look at your hand and we can ask FRIDAY to scan it and send the results for Helen to analyze."_

_"I can't have my fingers paralyzed..."_

_"Tony, your body received severe damage, we were both told that your recovery would be difficult, that it would take time and that there could be sequels yet to be discovered..."_

_"What if this is permanent, Pep? How I'm supposed to help Peter? His suit has an extremely complex structure with important details that are microscopic and that I was still teaching him how to work on it before all this shit happened."_

_"Tony, please calm down..."_

_"How am I going to help him now, Pep? How am I going to help him like this...? "_

When his mentor's voice broke, Peter couldn't take it anymore; he apologized to his aunt and left the house, running along the lake banks until he could no longer hear Tony's sobs and Pepper's gentle voice trying endless to comfort her husband.

~.~

When Peter finally returned to the Stark Residence, the sun had already set and the night was beginning to expand itself over the region in various shades of blue; the lake house was quiet and its occupants scattered somewhere inside it.

The teenager entered through the secondary door that gave direct access to the kitchen and when he stepped into the living room he stopped; he found Tony sitting on the couch looking at his family photos that were disposed over the burning fireplace. The fire projected partial light and heat to the environment and constantly cast a glow on the frames; among them, Peter realized, was the one they had taken together.

"It wasn't until Pepper and I returned to speak with May and she told us that you had suddenly run away from the house did I realize that I had forgotten to ask Friday to the soundproof the room."

The billionaire looked at his protégé then; his gaze held an apologetic look.

Peter diverted his eyes and inquired.

"Your hand... How is it?"

"Your aunt told me it is a muscular atrophy; the doctors had warned me before I left the hospital that the nerves were injured and inflamed, they said there's a chance that this could happen." Tony shook his head. "Shit; it was the first time that I really needed to use my hand for something and I know I shouldn't be so surprised, still, this got me off guard ... but its fine, I'm going to do some physiotherapy sessions for a few months."

When the teenager remained silent, standing at the doorway staring a hole into the ground, the engineer sighed softly.

"Pete, we need to talk about what happened."

The young hero's head snapped up sharply, eyes wide and haunted.

He watched his mentor, sitting on the couch with his left hand immobile, right arm missing and his face that still held the scars, all reminiscent of what he had done and all the crap he had gone through, and yet, in the man's brown eyes there's nothing but kindness. Peter's eyes watered and he shook his head, turning his face away, eyes glaring elsewhere in the room.

"Kiddo..." Tony called out to him and his protégé interrupted him.

"Why it had to be you?"

The young hero shot him a look.

"Out of 14,000,605 outcome possibilities, why you had to do it, Mr. Stark?"

And before the man could even react, Peter poured out the avalanche of thoughts that has plagued his head all afternoon as he circled the lake endlessly.

"It's always you who needs to do everything! You always have to sacrifice your things, your time and even yourself! You had to deal with all that bullshit of the Accords alone, deal with pressure from the media, the public and the government to answer for the Avenger's actions while they were all hiding around somewhere; you even paid for all the damage they did!"

Peter's voice raised considerably and the teenager didn't realize that he was almost screaming; his voice only didn't startled the other occupants of the house because it crashed into the sound barrier FRIDAY had set up previously by the engineer 's orders, since that conversation was meant for them alone.

Peter was trembling and just couldn't make his mouth stay shut; Tony watched him the entire time in silence, his face serene and patient. His mentor's apparent passivity irritated him even more.

"This... This isn't fair, Mr. Stark! It isn't fair! When they had the crazy idea of creating this time machine stuff and they came to you, they didn't care if you were _finally_ living your life with your family or that you and Pepper had a young daughter to take care of and that she had almost lost her father! And now you... you are like this..."

Peter's voice broke at the end and he unconsciously watched his mentor's hand, lying immobile on his thigh; and he thought about all the times they had worked together, remembered how the engineer used to manipulate the tools in the labs with such skill and knowledge as a maestro commanding an entire orchestra, seeming to be able to make real through his projects anything he so wished.

Peter swallowed dry.

"Your work ... you ... you lost a lot, Mr. Stark... you lost more than anyone else!"

The man watched the teenager, struggling to dry the tears that furiously insisted to slide down his face.

"Peter." Tony called him by his name and reluctantly his protégé found his gaze again and the billionaire held it in his. "A fourteen year-old wise kid taught me once that when we can do fantastic things and we don't, and bad things happen, they happen because of us, remember?"

Peter froze; his arms lying helpless beside him and he no longer struggled to try to stop the tears. The engineer shook his head, showing the environment around them.

"All of this... was on me. I did it because I could do it and because I had a reason to do it; I also had people I wanted to protect and I don't regret doing it." Tony's voice was firm and serious; there was no room for second thoughts. "Humanity won a lot back and I... I haven't lost anything, kid."

Incredulity filled Peter's countenance and the man stood from the couch.

"In all these years after Titan I've lost count of how many nightmares I had; sometimes I returned Earth to find that Pepper had been snapped out and at other times I would see myself here at the lake house and realize that she and Morgan had disappeared, but waking up and seeing them both with me has always helped me to get a hold back of myself. The worst ones have always been about you. I stopped watching sunsets, kid, because I dreamed countless times of it bathing your face while you turned to dust and I couldn't bring myself to watch it anymore. I dreamed countless times that you were here in the labs helping me with a project or working on your suit, only to wake up and find that you were gone with nothing I could do to lessen this fucking sensation of helplessness and failure inside me for what happened."

The teenager's jaw dropped in shock and he stammered.

"But… It… it wasn't your fault Mr. Stark ..."

"We were there, Pete, and we almost got the Gauntlet off him before he did the all damage in first place. I led the group and I always felt that was on me."

_... and if you died, I feel like that's on me. _His mentor's voice whispered back to him in his memories of the discussion they had had at the Harbor, and Peter noticed Tony watching him with that same deep, fatherly and understandable look that the man had given him when they reunited in the battlefield.

"That's why I understand all that shit that you're nurturing in your head." The engineer said then and Peter knew that he was referring to his thoughts about the Infinity Gauntlet in their last confrontation against Thanos.

"It was in my hands..." Peter said weakly.

"And God be blessed for it to have been taken away before you decided to do something stupid." Tony sighed again, this time with the slight familiar exasperation that his past self sometimes used to wear.

The man raised his hand and touched the teenager's face; although his fingers remained immobile, he slid it over his protégé's eyes and wiped away his apparent tears, then brought him to his embrace. Peter sank against his chest and immediately returned the gesture, and the billionaire marveled on how easy it came to them now, so simple and yet so great. Before he had denied that closeness several times, now he couldn't imagine his life without the kid again. If he closed his eyes now to open them and discover it was just another dream, Tony didn't knew if he would be able to hold himself back together so soon.

But it was real, completely real, and Peter sniffled, moving away partly to watch him with a frown.

"Your work..."

The billionaire shrugged.

"I will find a way around this." Tony watched him with a small grin on his lips. "This is small price compared to what I got back."

The billionaire's had a meaningful gaze, and he patted the teenager's head fondly.

"We have all the time in the world, Pete, and I want to live it to the best with my family, and that includes you."

The look Peter gave him was so open and sincere, filled with so much emotion that it also touched the man; feeling his eyes water, Tony blinked several times and wiped his face. He cleared his throat.

"This ... This is not tears, underoos, I just got something in my eye, don't get so gleeful about it." The teenager snorted, clearly not buying it; the engineer shook his head, composing himself. "Alright, kid, enough of all this mellow stuff..."

Exhaling the air from his lungs loudly, Tony indicated the fireplace and the object resting above it.

"That box is for you; take it."

Peter curiously took it in his hands and opened it; his eyes widened in surprise.

"I ... I thought it was still broken..."

"After you were snapped your aunt handed it to me, May told me that you intended to fix it that day, if we hadn't been taken into space..."

Tony watched his mentee take the device and handle it in his fingers.

"It was only after I got this I realized that even after we spent so much time together, I had nothing of you with me other than that photograph... Sorry I didn't return it to May after I fixed it." The billionaire didn't sound sorry at all. "Come on, turn it on."

Peter fastened it on his right wrist and pressed the button; the reddish laser light projected the hologram over their heads, spreading Spiderman's logo on the ceiling. The smile that sprouted on the teenager's lips was so genuine and contagious that Tony couldn't help but smile either.


	3. III - Suit

Hi guys! Of all the chapters in this little story I confess that this one, though smaller, was the most difficult for me to write due to the character's introspective. I hope it turned out okay! The last chapter is already completed and will be posted next week. Hope you like it and, as always, thank you for reading. :)

* * *

**Healing Was Never Easy**

_III_

_Suit_

~.~

"Hey, Mr. Stark." The teenager greeted him as soon as he entered the living room and found his mentor sprawled on the couch looking at nowhere.

"Pete." The man reciprocated lazily, his eyes met his protégé's and Peter laughed.

"You look bored."

Tony snorted.

"I'm doing my best to convince my ass to stay still in the same place 24 hours a day, but frankly this sucks and Pepper's books on Human Psychology are absolutely horrible. I'm going to tell her to throw them out tonight."

Peter fumbled with the hem of his shirt and inquired with a little bit of shyness

"Huh... I ... you... Could you… huh… go outside with me for a while, Mr. Stark?"

The man raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"Of course, it's not like I have anything better to do."

The engineer stood and accompanied the other; they both left the house together through the entrance door and as soon as they entered the open space, the golden light of the sunset touched their faces. Tony widened his eyes in surprise; the great ball of fire was disappearing over the horizon above the blackened trees, tinting the expansion of the sky in red and gold and the light touched the lake, making the water reflect like a mirror the abundant tray of colors that spread over it.

"I thought, you know... that we could watch it together." Peter spoke to his mentor and the billionaire understood his gesture.

The man observed the phenomenon for the first time in years feeling peace within him; before, the golden light brought him the pain of memories from that distant planet and it was a remembrance of failure and loss, but now, while his gaze strayed from the scenery to watch Peter's relaxed countenance beside him, he felt only tranquility. They watched the sun in silence until it completely disappeared; it was the beginning of a new cycle for them.

After a few minutes standing in a pleasant silence, Tony started a conversation on another subject_._

"FRIDAY reported me that one of the sensors on your suit is malfunctioning."

Peter looked at him with some resignation.

"Karen can't hide anything from her, can she?"

Tony looked at him directly.

"Kid, I don't want to always have to rely on my AI checking the security protocols into your suit to know if you need help with something. Why didn't _you_ tell me?"

The teenager blushed lightly.

"It wasn't a big deal, Mr. Stark, I'm managing to use it just fine, really; it's just a problem in adjusting the Enhanced Combat Mode setting, it isn't obeying well, sometimes it doesn't equip when I want it and sometimes it does when I don't want to, but I can improvise, Karen is helping me."

"Since when?" The engineer asked then.

"... since the fight against Thanos." Peter admitted and Tony sighed.

"Pete; you know I can't let you hanging around like that risking taking a beating from your own suit."

"I-I was going to try to fix it! I just ... I still don't know how to disable the security barriers for accessing the system in the Iron Spider suit..." He then spoke in a lower, almost petulant tone. "... FRIDAY didn't want to give me your password."

The engineer shook his head, amused.

"Go on and get it, Kid."

Peter's eyes widened in surprise.

"What?!"

"Let's go to the lab and fix it at once; if you need it again at least I know everything will be perfectly functioning."

"How?"

Tony rolled his eyes.

"You have a good pair of hands and I have my brilliant brain, which, by the way, has the entire manual for building your suit; I don't know how it won't work out."

At that moment a third small figure joined them in front of the house and glued herself on the engineer's right leg, watching him with a cute expression on her face.

"Can I go too, Daddy?" Morgan asked and her father patted her head softly.

"Look who's here snooping on us. What did Mum tell you about doing that, Little Miss?" Tony asked her sternly.

"That it is bad." The girl admitted, pouting, and the engineer's expression softened a little.

"And what did Daddy say about it?"

Morgan then giggled.

"Don't let her catch me."

The engineer grinned.

"That's my girl."

Peter smiled watching them and Tony smirked to his protégé.

"See? We have FRIDAY, KAREN and also Morgan here to pinch you if you do something wrong. What else could we need?"

~.~

When Peter entered Stark Residence's lab, bringing his suit with him and accompanied by Morgan, he found Tony sitting on a coach, intently staring at his old suit; his eyes, however, no longer held that shadow the teenager had seen before on his first day of stay_, _now it seemed to show a certain amount of calmness.

As Morgan rushed ahead, leaping playfully in her steps towards one workstation, Peter stopped beside his mentor and before he could hold his tongue, he said aloud the thought that crossed his mind at that very moment.

"Do you miss it?"

Tony looked up to him with a questioning gaze and Peter blushed lightly; now that he had let the question escape, he forced himself to elaborate and inquire it again.

"Do you miss wearing it... your suit, Mr. Stark?"

The billionaire slowly nodded and looked back again at the iron armor resting inside the glass capsule, partially destroyed and filthy, with a thoughtful countenance.

"I think this is the first time anyone asked me this since I woke up in the hospital."

Tony was silent for a moment and then spoke.

"It's... strange, Pete... it's a strange feeling... I used the armor for the last 14 years of my life, tried to improve it as much as I could and I spent a lot of time doing it, exploring all the possibilities. I think I ended getting too much used to it. Anything I needed to do and the suit was necessary, I wore it without a second thought_, _and I wore it so much that it became a part of me, like when you are a child and learn to ride a bike, the skill becomes inherent to you and you respond automatically to any stimulus. The suit and all its features were all here, in my head... like an extension of my body reacting to any of my commands at the exact moment I wanted it to. I didn't always need to ask FRIDAY to activate a sensor or perform a certain task... there were times when I just ... felt ... and when I felt, it happened, exactly as I wanted it to. "

The man sighed; his eyes took on a distant gaze.

"Not wearing it now is weird... It's almost like I'm naked."

At that moment Peter realized that Tony had lost a part of himself on the battlefield, and also looking at the old suit resting inside the capsule and thinking that his mentor would never wear it again, the thought saddened and hurt him deeply. Before the teenager said anything, however, the engineer went on.

"But Pete ... the armor is just one of the things I built in my life. It's true that it made a lot of difference in a lot of things, and that, yeah... maybe I miss using it a little bit, but ... it's just a project, really… one step that has moved on to the beginning of another. One of the shitty things that happen when you have to sit your ass still in a single place in recovering is that you have too much time to think for your own good, and now I'm being kind of forced to sort out all the mess that I've been gathering in my head all these years. That's when I started to understand that the armor wasn't so essential for everything, there were some things I could've done without it in the past... in fact, I still can, even now.

Tony observed the laboratory around them and there was fondness in his gaze; his eyes roamed over the workstations, the tools neatly arranged on a panel, the computers, the shelves and all the equipment and a genuine smile spread on his lips.

"This is what I am and what I do; I build and fix things... All of this... is me."

Peter stood in silence, deeply admired.

The teenager saw the engineer in a way he had never seen him before; even though he was sitting, Tony stood tall with a countenance full of unwavering strength and as solid as the iron that gave name to his suit. In the capsule next to the wall there was only an empty carcass, while in front of him Peter glimpsed Iron Man's the true face.

When Tony stood from the couch he looked like a giant and rose higher than if he were wearing his armor; his eyes shone brighter than the bluish light that used to be projected onto the suit's faceplate. At that moment Peter didn't doubt that the engineer would be able to recover completely, because even in that condition his mentor tried to find a way to do something, in a capacity of adaptation so great just to be able to help and to be there for them. He stood stronger than anything and nothing in that universe seemed to be able to break or destroy him.

At that moment Peter was sure that Tony Stark was the strongest man he had ever met.

The teenager felt his eyes water; quickly he averted his face and blinked several times, composing himself. When Tony looked at him, brown eyes twinkling full of life, Peter returned him a wide smile and the man threw his left arm around his protégé's shoulders.

"Come on, kiddo; put your suit on the workstation and let's get your hands dirty."

~.~

Pepper sighed softly as she walked to their laboratory to fetch her husband; it hadn't even been a full week since Tony had come back home and he already had broken their agreement not to stay there until late at night. When she arrived, however, the woman stopped at the doorway and stayed silent; the three occupants of the room didn't notice her presence. Peter was standing in front of a workstation while fiddling with something in his Iron Spider suit; Tony was sitting next to him, talking and guiding him through words on what to do and Morgan sat at the end of the table, partially bending over the project with great interest in her little face.

The engineer shook his head in exasperation.

"Kid, for God's sake, don't blow up your suit."

"But you told me to put this here, Mr. Stark!" Peter countered immediately.

"I told you to 'put it down' and not to 'slam it down.'"

"But you didn't... OW!" The teenager suddenly cried out, jumping; he stared at Morgan in disbelief.

"You pinched me!"

The girl looked up at him seriously.

"Daddy said I could if you did something wrong."

Tony threw his head back and laughed loudly and the teenager pointed an accusing finger at her, indignantly.

"She pinched me, Mr. Stark!"

"You heard her, Pete, you deserved it." The man snorted. "Alright, kiddo, enough of that. Go get the spare module I have in that closet."

Peter's head turned abruptly towards his mentor, his jaw dropped.

"You already had one fixed?! Why did you made me do all this?" He had been working on that little circuit for three whole hours and only now did Tony tell him he had another one?!

"And miss the opportunity to teach you and see Morgan pinch you?" The engineer grinned, without any sign of guilt.

"It's not funny, Mr. Stark!" Peter glared at him doing an impressive imitation of an angry kitten.

"Of course it is." Tony cracked again, his genuine laugh mixed with his daughter's while the fuming teenager went to the closet to get the mentioned item.

Pepper saw at that moment that certain things couldn't be changed, and smiling softly, she was glad that they hadn't changed.


	4. IV - Gift

Hi guys! So, here's the last chapter for this little story! I want to thank you all for reading and accompanying me so far. I hope you enjoy the ending!

See you around on other projects of mine :)

Best Regards! ~ Arsad

* * *

Healing Was Never Easy

_IV_

_Gift_

~.~

On one of the nights when Peter was unable to sleep, he wandered through the semi-dark corridors of the Stark Residence without really caring to where he was going. His feet moved by themselves as the teenager saw again in his mind him and Tony working silently in his suit; his hands moving correctly following the engineer's instructions. Their shared company had given him a great sense of comfort and familiarity and he knew that the man had also felt it, something that related to the time when they both worked together in the Tower's lab after Peter left school.

They both have truly enjoyed it, but still... there was something missing and he knew exactly what it was_. _He missed seeing Tony working on his projects with his own hands and the sheer glint that he usually had in his eyes back then when he was about to accomplish something.

When Peter realized he was standing in front of the garage's door and he stared at it in surprise; he hadn't even realized he had left the house. Thinking for a moment, the young hero questioned the panel next to the handle.

"FRIDAY?"

"Yes, Peter?" AI responded promptly.

"Can you tell me if Mr. Stark gave me access to the laboratory?"

"Sure; you can go anywhere in the Stark Residence at any time; the only exception is the master suite." FRIDAY informed him. "If you wish, you can use the lab now."

The latch inside the handle made a sound and the young hero knew that AI had unlocked the door. He entered the lab and FRIDAY turned on the lights; the teenager watched the workstations and some of the tools disposed on the open shelf beyond for a few quiet minutes. Everything was perfectly tidy and clean, a contrast to the mess the place probably used to be while his mentor worked on something in the past.

As Peter stopped in the center of the room, his gaze met once again Iron Man's suit resting inside the glass capsule, with the red and gold of its titanium skin still broken and stained with dirt and dried blood_, _just like the last time he saw it.

"Would you like to work on a project, Peter?" FRIDAY inquired with a hint of curiosity.

The teenager stared at the mask's empty eyes and in his memories he saw it glow fiercely and intimidating once more. He frowned, his thoughts running wild like gears turning furiously on his head.

"I think I do, FRI." Peter replied; his gaze never left his mentor's suit.

"May I be of assistance?" AI then inquired.

"Yes, indeed." A grin started to sprout on the teenager's face. "I will need your help, but you will have to keep it a secret; it's a gift for Mr. Stark"

"If he doesn't ask me directly about it, I can do that." FRIDAY agreed and Peter couldn't help but laugh at the conspiratorial tone in the AI's voice.

"Just as KAREN helps me with my suit, you were programmed to help Mr. Stark while he was wearing the iron armor; you know all the configurations and his body structure..." The young hero started to walk around one of the workstations, his fingers skimmed the smooth surface absently.

"That's correct." FRIDAY stated and he stopped.

"Show me it on the 3D hologram." He asked. "Show me Iron Man in his suit before the last fight against Thanos."

The AI immediately materialized the requested image from her recordings through a hologram and Peter found himself watching the perfect replica of his mentor, standing before him wearing his suit with the retracted faceplate showing his expressionless face, eyes that stared ahead without any trace of the warmness that the engineer usually had_. _FRIDAY reproduced it faithfully.

"Separate him from the suit." He asked and AI changed the image; now Tony was standing beside the armor, wearing casual clothes. "Change to blueprint format now."

FRIDAY again modified the image and his mentor disappeared to show instead thousands of lines that showed in rich details his body structure, as well as every detail of the suit design next to it. Peter approached the bluish hologram and watching Tony's projection, he asked the AI in a voice slight louder than a whisper.

"Highlight in red all the injury that Mr. Stark suffered when he used the Infinity Gauntlet."

The man's right arm immediately changed color on the hologram; the lines that drew from his hand to almost his entire shoulder turned completely red, showing the real extent of the damage the engineer had suffered in the battle and currently reflected on his missing limb. A few small lines were also distributed on the right side of the man's face showing his current scars, and also in the nerves of his left hand also showing its current atrophy. FRIDAY, just as she had often done for her Boss_, _attuned to Peter's thought and realizing his intention she immediately repeated the action in the holographic suit without the young hero having to ask for it.

Peter examined the two images for a moment and then touched the suit's design; with his hands he took it apart and separated the pieces, discarding most of them in a holographic trash can that FRIDAY made available to him until there was only its right arm and some small pieces of material used in other parts of the armor, but that could be useful to him.

Nodding to himself, he thought then he would need to talk to Pepper to get the missing material, but it could work ... he had to try.

"Would you like me to download all the readings I have recorded in the past few years that Boss used to build his suits?" FRIDAY questioned him, going straight to the point.

"Yes; we will start from there."

Peter's gaze went back to the capsule of glass and at the real suit, and the teenager could only remember his mentor's words telling him.

_...It became a part of me... The suit and all its features were all here, in my head... like an extension of my body... I just ... felt ... and when I felt, it happened, exactly as I wanted it to...__ All of this... is me._

~.~

Peter jumped when he felt a hand stroking his hair. Lifting his wrinkled face from his workstation, he blinked sleepily and perceived Tony sitting beside him, watching him with mild curiosity. The man's hand dropped from the teenager's hair and rested above his shoulder.

"Hey, kid... What are you still doing here? Shouldn't you be sleeping in your bed?"

"Working..." The young hero yawned, straightening up in the chair and rubbing his eyes.

He gave the lab a quick look; everything was clean and his project was safely stored, the files he was reading on the computer before falling asleep FRIDAY had saved them and turned everything off. He sighed in relief and his mentor raised an eyebrow.

"You have been staying here longer than at the house for the past few days. Tiring yourself out is not good for your health."

"Say's the man who used to do it every night." Peter grinned. "I've learned it from you, Mr. Stark."

"Oh, shit; you're screwed then." Tony chuckled good naturally and glanced around in curiosity. "What are working on, anyway?"

"Some upgrades for my suit." The young hero shrugged.

"I thought we were doing this together." The engineer frowned.

"It's a little bit different, actually; it's something I'm trying to build."

"And you don't want my help?"

"It's not like that! I want to impress you." Peter observed his mentor with genuine appreciation: "I will consider myself the worst mentee in the world if after learning from the great Tony Stark I'm unable to build something on my own that doesn't explode in my face."

"Kiddo..." Tony laughed heartily and the teenager grinned. The man shook his head, amused. "Very well, I will respect your secrecy."

The man watched his protégé tenderly.

"I'm proud of you, Pete."

Peter's eyes widened in surprise; it was the first time he had heard those words coming from the engineer. Tony looked at him again with that different gaze that spoke a lot even while the man stayed silent, and in those days living at the Stark Residence, Peter had learned that it was a look that Tony usually directed at him and also at his daughter, and he had already understood its meaning. The teenager felt warmth spread within him.

"Peter." Tony called him again and the young hero met his gaze. The man shifted in his seat and spoke. "I'm not very good with words on this kind of stuff; I learned a lot in the past five years with Morgan, but still..."

The engineer chuckled softly.

"You... you are very important to me... have I ever told it to you this plainly before_?" _Tony asked and the young hero shook his head, speechless and wide-eyed, and the man nodded, agreeing with the answer. "I know ... there are so many other things that I wish I had told you before and that I thought I would never do it… I thought I had lost you… This is one of them."

The billionaire took a deep breath.

"I really missed you, Pete... A lot in all these years. I lived here in this house with Pepper and we raised our daughter; I could only imagine what it would have been like for her growing up with you in her life."

"Morgan is a formidable girl; I like her very much..." Peter spoke in a slightly shaky voice.

"She adores you, you know that?" Tony smiled. "And it's really hard to not like you, kiddo; you even managed to make_ me_ like you, and believe it, that's something only a few people on this world have accomplished."

"Tony Stark has a heart... it wasn't that difficult." The teenager snickered softly at Pepper's personal joke and the man snorted fondly, nodding.

"I have... and you are an important piece of it." Tony told him seriously and indicated the scenario around them. "You know, I spent my entire life dedicating myself to all of this. My passion for the labs and for each of the things I did here ... I had never met anyone who also shared this feeling until I met you. After we worked so long together, this laboratory that I built at the Stark Residence could have all SI's state-of-the-art technologies, but it was still empty, missing one of the two brilliant minds that really made it all work here."

Peter's eyes widened and the engineer's face lit up while he watched the lab.

"Watching you working here because you like it, because you want to be here, building or fixing things like I like to do... You don't know how much it makes me so damn happy, kid."

Tony's hand rested on the teenager's face; the man grinned.

"Before, Pepper and I had no one to leave our legacy; now we have two wonderful kids to share it, and there's nothing in this world we wouldn't do for them."

Peter's gaze was filled with deep emotion, impacted by the true meaning behind those words. Tony leaned in and hugged the other and his protégé leaned against his chest, embracing him back tightly. The engineer rested his head above his kid's and whispered tenderly to him.

"I'm glad I got you back, son."

The teenager cried; the tears slid down his face and wet the man's shirt. He opened his mouth several times to speak, but the words didn't come out, choked in his throat by emotion. Peter wished to thank the man for being there, for teaching him, for saving him, for being his friend, his mentor and so much more, but even without being able to say anything out loud, when he felt the engineer's fatherly kiss on his cheek, his embrace never faltering, Peter knew that Tony had felt them.

~.~

The next time someone decided to visit him in the lab at night it was Pepper, and FRIDAY had warned him about her approach; the teenager didn't spared her a glance when the woman entered the place, as she already knew it all being his supplier, main supporter and had played a strategic role in diverting her husband's attention when Peter needed to remove the iron suit from its resting place, claiming to Tony that she had decided to keep it in another place out of sight because she thought it would be better for his recovery. Tony didn't complain about it, even though his protégé noticed the man sometimes glancing at the empty capsule while they were in the lab.

"How's your project going, dear?" The auburn-haired woman asked as soon as she saw him, his figure slight bending over his workstation.

"Almost done." Peter grinned, looking over his shoulder. "Want to take a look at it?"

Pepper stopped beside him and looked at the teenager's project; her eyes widened with genuine admiration.

"This... It's wonderful, Peter." She stared back at him, and there was only gratitude in her gaze.

~.~

"Why the hell I need to do another surgery?" Tony stared at Helen's face as if the doctor had suddenly grown another head.

"We have been studying a new surgical technique that could fix the nerves of your left hand, giving back stability to your fingers_; _in theory, if it works, you will be able to hold objects in a tight grip as before." The woman explained. "It won't be a big intervention at first and won't take more than two hours of surgery. As a direct benefit you will be able to work with objects that require handling minute details like you used to do before on your projects."

It made the billionaire think, considering the matter.

He had already gone through the worst shits someone possible could enough to fill the curiosity of a lifetime, and return to the hospital after he almost died and bargained to get out of it in the first place was the least thing he wanted to do, but to think that he could go back to work in his laboratory again was something that pleased him immensely; being able to work with one hand was better than no hand at all and he would be able to help Peter more efficiently than sitting in front of his kid telling him what he should or not do.

He didn't want to go back to the hospital, but the offer tempted him too hard.

"How long would I have to stay?" The engineer decided to inquire then.

"A day or two at most for observation, just to be safe; after that, May could assist you here at Stark Residence and will keep me informed."

"Say yes, Daddy!" Morgan spoke to him, jumping on the couch next to her father, giving those brown puppy eyes that made him snort and pat her head.

"Why are you suspiciously agreeing to this, Little Miss?"

"It's because I finished my project." Peter replied and Tony looked at him. "I told Morgan that I only would let you see it if you have the surgery."

"And _this_ is supposed to motivate me?" The man gave him a fondly smile and the teenager grinned.

"Of course! I really want to work with you again, Mr. Stark! Hand, fingers and all!"

The man looked at his family watching him back expectantly and Pepper placed a hand on his thigh.

"What do you say, honey?"

Tony observed his wife and he read in her blue eyes exactly what he was considering before; it was a way to get a piece of himself back.

"Alright... I will do it." He finally agreed.

~.~

Tony regained consciousness slowly and gradually, waking from a good, dreamless sleep; he felt rested as he hadn't felt since before the war. With his head tilted partially to the left, the first thing the man saw when he groggily opened his eyes was his left hand resting on the bed completely covered in bandages up to the elbow. Rising his gaze, he looked at the window and saw the sky outside was completely dark and he frowned, confused.

If they had arrived at the hospital early in the morning and the surgery wouldn't be long, why the hell the night looked so advanced?

Tony shifted in his position and tried to sit; a sudden flash of discomfort in the entire right side of his body made him stop and grunt; his head turned abruptly, his eyes widened and his jaw dropped in shock.

His chest was covered entirely with thick bandages and somewhere beneath it was the discomfort; the bandages ended by revealing a shoulder connected to an arm and a hand entirely made of titanium; the limb's red and gold color stand out to his eyes and the engineer immediately recognized that it was built from parts of his suit.

The designer was perfect; it was done in minute detail and the size and shape resembled that of his left arm, suiting his body with elegance. Clearly it was made especially for him. The hand and each of its fingers were redesigned on a smaller scale so that it perfectly resembled a human hand and not the robust form of his iron gauntlet. On the wrist the man saw a small oval orifice where a miniature of his Ark Reactor has been placed, though at that moment it was off.

Tony didn't delve further in his thoughts as the room's door suddenly opened and his daughter and wife entered the room.

"Daddy, you woke up!"

The five-year-old girl rushed to her father's side and Tony instinctively raised his arm in her direction; it was his iron limb that responded and his eyes watched with fascination as it moved and landed on his daughter's face, the golden-red fingers cradled Morgan's cheek perfectly and caressed her gently.

"It worked! See mum! It worked!" Morgan exclaimed in delight; Pepper was so touched that she didn't answer immediately, her trembling hands covered her mouth and the woman's blue eyes shone brightly with tears, watching her husband with genuine joy.

Morgan's hands held her father's titanium arm, her small eyebrows frowned deeply as she looked at the man's hand resting on hers, examining his fingers.

"But... this is still off." She complained. "I know how to turn it on, Daddy, you need to do this!"

The girl touched the Ark Reactor and it come to life, shining brightly before their eyes and expanding inside the limb as blood does to the arteries and veins of the human body, and when it happened, Tony felt himself being suddenly filled with warmth coming from his five-year-old daughter's hands, her touch caressed his red and gold fingers while she watched his face with expectation.

The man's countenance filled in with awe as he stared at their joined hands. He could feel it; he could feel her touch as if Morgan was caressing him directly on his human skin. And when Pepper came over and sat on the edge of the bed, she landed her hand above theirs and the engineer felt the exact moment her fingers touched and intertwined with his, and his hand responded to the gesture instinctively, curling around his wife and daughter's fingers.

"Why don't you go to your brother and let him know that your father has already woken up?" Pepper spoke to the girl.

"Yup!" Morgan agreed and literally ran out of the room after the teenager.

Tony stared at his wife in wonder.

"How...?"

"Peter did it; it's a gift from him to you." Pepper answered and not a second later the door opened again and their daughter returned bringing Peter with her.

The engineer stood up slowly; his gaze found the teenager's and the young hero grinned softly.

"Hey, Mr. Stark... How are you?"

Shifting on his feet partly, Peter spoke.

"Morgan told me that your arm is working well... I hope you liked it. I'm not as brilliant as you are, but I think my secret project turned out right."

When Tony remained silent, still staring at Peter without showing any reaction, the teenager started to become nervous on the man's lack of response. He fumbled with the hem of his shirt and his gaze strayed to the floor as he started rambling out.

"I-I didn't do it alone, FRIDAY helped me a lot because she knows how you built your suit; you are literally Iron Man now, I guess... sort of... Sorry for dismantling your suit, I needed the remaining arm as the mold for the new one. Dr. Cho and her team helped a lot to connect your nerves to the ironwork structure so that you could feel things again; I sent her a copy of the blueprints of the project when I started to work on it. I'm sure there must be something to fix there, you should check it out; I tried to do my best looking at your files... FRIDAY wanted to keep the repulsor in case you wanted to, you know, blow something up, but I took it off because I _definitely_ don't know how to work on it and I didn't want to risk messing something and ended up accidentally exploding on you, so if you want it you'll have to put it back..."

His ramblings were interrupted when Tony crossed the distance and hugged him, crashing Peter in his arms tightly. His chest right protested in a flash of pain from the surgical intervention, but the man paid no attention; he could only feel his iron hand slide up the other's back, feel the sweat under the fabric of his shirt, the warmth of his skin and the smoothness of his short messy hair sliding his iron fingers through it; and when Tony rested his face on the teenager's shoulder, Peter felt his mentor's tears wet his clothes while feeling his own eyes water, and he returned the man's embrace with the same intensity.

"Hey, dad..." His kid called him timidly. "I'm glad I got you back."

When Tony looked at him, the smile on his lips was one of the brightest that Peter had ever seen on the man's face.


End file.
